Apple reports 80,000 new U.S. jobs created by iOS App Economy within 2012

Incredible growth in Apple's iOS App Store has doubled its payouts to developers (now totaling over $8 billion) and sparked the creation of over 80,000 new jobs directly related to building software for Apple's mobile platform within the last year.

Apple first highlighted the economic impact of its iOS platform one year ago, citing figures that noted the creation and support of 514,000 jobs.

Of those, 210,000 were directly attributed to the "iOS App Economy" among developers who were building apps specifically for iPhone and iPad.

The remaining 304,000 included Apple's own workforce of 47,000, as well as its American component suppliers in engineering, manufacturing and transportation jobs including those put to work shipping the company's products around the country.

One year later, Apple's total jobs creation figure has grown to 598,500. Of those, Apple itself reported having hired 3,250 new employees within the U.S.

Conservatively, the company hasn't claimed any growth among its component suppliers or in transportation. That leaves the balance of new jobs attributed to the iOS App Economy: 81,250.

Apple plays defense with job creation offense

Apple began drawing attention to the new jobs induced through its App Store market after a series of high profile attacks began blaming the company for establishing manufacturing in China next to every other U.S. tech giant.

A snowballing series of reports began blaming Apple over allegations of poor working conditions and worker suicides at its suppliers, attributing blame on the company even for suicides that occured on the manufacturing lines of other companies.

At the same time, those reports, including a notoriously condemnatory "iEconomy" series published by the New York Times lambasted the company for not creating tedious manufacturing jobs in the U.S., where suicide rates are already higher than those among Chinese workers.

After Apple directed attention to the jobs the iOS App Store has already created in the U.S. among American suppliers and its third party developers, the New York Times printed a dreary portrayal of one couple that quit their jobs and cashed in their retirement savings, only to fail to get rich writing iOS apps.

What sort of new jobs?

The "App Economy" jobs Apple says iOS is creating aren't equivalent to the company's own hirings, most of which are full time, well-paying jobs with strong benefits packages, even among its retail workers.

At the same time, Apple also isn't simply counting individuals who have signed up to create a developer account that allows them to post software to the App Store.

The new jobs range from full time professionals employed by third party development firms to part time hobbyists and everything in between, making the App Store more of an entrepreneurial opportunity generator than a government-style work program.

A survey of 252 independent iOS developers by Streaming Color Studios found that a quarter of them reported making essentially nothing, while another quarter reported earning more than $30,000.

The remaining half were somewhere in between, while a small number, 4 percent (about ten people in the survey), had earned over $1 million from their App Store efforts.

Say 250 people enroll in a technical college, tupperware/avon sales, open up cafes or start building widgets of their own design. How many of them earn $1M within a few years?

The US Census Bureau says that in their first 5 years, 64% of small business construction startups fail, 60% of transport/utility and finance/insurance/real estate companies fail, 59% of new retailers fail, 53% of ag/wholesale/services firms fail, 52% of manufacturers fail and 51% of the mining efforts fail.

Say 250 people enroll in a technical college, tupperware/avon sales, open up cafes or start building widgets of their own design. How many of them earn $1M within a few years?

The US Census Bureau says that in their first 5 years, 64% of small business construction startups fail, 60% of transport/utility and finance/insurance/real estate companies fail, 59% of new retailers fail, 53% of ag/wholesale/services firms fail, 52% of manufacturers fail and 51% of the mining efforts fail.

Those failures translate in many cases as know-how.

BTW most discoveries in science are accidents. So imagine the percentage of failure?

If you are not ready to fail, hardly you gonna win.

So you wonder why people elect civil servants which are against paying taxes.

I expect that one of the things people will say is that Samsung isn't a US company.

In this age?

Slavery in the USA was already a sign of globalization ( not only the USA did gain with it, because USA did buy goods from other part of the earth with profits from slavery ). Ao it will be a foolish response.

Samsung spends allot in ads and with the intermediary resellers ( which does not add many jobs, but helps maintain plenty ).

In Europe if you visit any Phone House shop you'll see all kind of phone minus an iPhone certainly, along with Samsung's and Microsoft's officials and such.

I wonder why people still compare iPhone and Android or Microsoft OS powered phones sale in Europe.

The rest either come from companies that apple buys from (257,000 jobs) or from the the Apps that outside firms produce that operate on Apple products (291,250 jobs). Which is all pretty hard to pin down stuff. I mean how do you if an Angry birds employee is supported by Apple or an Android App or like me that uses it on Chrome?

Hmm, that doesn't sound like there's a living to be made from becoming an iOS developer.

This applies to any platform. Software development has traditionally been the realm of hobbyists anyway. I would argue that most developers write applications that they want. Having a store like the AppStore where you can simply upload it to and possibly make a little extra money is always a good thing. Anyone who thinks they can go "all in" and ride the app bandwagon hoping for riches is foolish.

I develop in my free time, and most of the stuff I write are highly custom apps that would never make it to the AppStore, so I tend to go the Webkit-based app route. This allows them to download it directly to their devices, bypassing the AppStore. I'm sure there are a lot of other developers that go this route as well and aren't counted in those iEconomy statistics.